New clashes rock Sudan as internet returns after deadly day

Street clashes again shook Khartoum as internet services returned to Sudan on Thursday, a day after 15 protesters were killed in the bloodiest violence since the country’s October 25 coup.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken led a chorus of international condemnation over the crackdown and demanded that Sudan’s people be allowed to “assemble peacefully and express their views”.

The demonstrations on Wednesday were organised despite a near-total shutdown of internet services and the disruption of telephone lines.

Police on Thursday fired tear gas to disperse anti-coup protesters and tore down makeshift barricades before dozens of demonstrators returned to rebuild them only to face more tear gas.

“Protesters responded by hurling stones at the police,” one of the witnesses said.

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The official news agency SUNA said later that “internet services are gradually returning through all telecommunication companies.”

AFP journalists were able to access the internet, including social media networks through VPNs.

On October 25, top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — Sudan’s de facto leader since the April 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir — detained the civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency.

The move upended Sudan’s fragile transition to full civilian rule, drawing international condemnation and a flurry of punitive measures and aid cuts.

Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup” but a step to “rectify the course of the transition” to civilian rule.

Thousands took to the streets on Wednesday in Khartoum and other cities but were met by the deadliest crackdown since the military’s takeover.

At least 15 people were killed, most of them in north Khartoum, doctors said, raising the overall toll since the coup to 39 dead.

But police said they had recorded only one death among protesters in north Khartoum. Another 30 had suffered breathing difficulties from tear gas inhalation.

They said they had fired no live rounds and used only “minimum force”, even as 89 officers were wounded, some of them critically.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said “it is utterly shameful that live ammunition was again used yesterday against protesters.”

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association Clement Voule said he had “received alarming reports of increased use of lethal force by the military against peaceful protesters”.

The European Union said the “perpetrators of these violations will be held accountable” and that the blackout must “not prevent the world from being informed about these human rights violations”.